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Excerpted from “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions,” by Dan Ariely, 2008, Harper Collins.

On what would otherwise have been a normal Friday afternoon in the life of an eighteen-year-old Israeli, everything changed irreversibly in a matter of a few seconds. An explosion of a large magnesium flare, the kind used to illuminate battlefields at night, left 70 percent of my body covered with third-degree burns.

The next three years found me wrapped in bandages in a hospital, and then emerging into public only occasionally, dressed in a tight synthetic suit and mask that made me look like a crooked version of Spider Man. Without the ability to participate in the same daily activities as my friends and family, I felt partially separated from society and started to observe the very activities that were once my daily routine as if I were an outsider. As if I had come from a different culture (or planet), I started reflecting on the goals of different behaviors, mine and those of others. For example, I started wondering why I loved one girl but not another, why my daily routine was designed to be comfortable for the physicians but not for me, why I loved going rock climbing but not studying history, why I used to care so much about what other people thought of me, and mostly what it is about life that motivates people.

Hear Dan Ariely on “Radio In Vivo” on WCOM radio in Carrboro, NC. Jan. 30, 2008